The autobahn out from the airport is complex for a while. You need to concentrate to get the roundabouts and offramps right and plot your route. Soon enough though, the bustle ebbs and the roads open — even to present a little limit-free driving in a car built just for that.

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The verdant green Bavarian late spring interspersed with darker green forest is now just a blur out the corners of your eyes, your concentration fixed hard on the road ahead. Will that smoky old black Golf TDI break convoy with the Sprinter ahead of it? Will this dramatic surge be broken?

It doesn't and now it's clear as far as I can see. Is this paradise?

No time to consider as the needle edges toward 300, every one of those five hundred horses harnessed to do exactly what we're doing now, accompanied by a distant but satisfying growl. But there's a long almost blind curve and it's prudent to lift.

Phew! 200 seems like 100 now and those hidden overtaking trucks make the decision to lift seem far more sensible…

Not that it matters — those six-pot front and four-piston rear callipers clamping our tester's optional ceramic brakes are simply awe-inspiring.

The way it was accelerating suggests that when it gets to 300, it'll probably be a limiter that prevents progress rather than the end of the power band. Impressive!

It's taken a while to get here: first came the rumours, we saw the mules for years before the teaser pics, the first full photos came next, the spec, then the official launch in Shanghai and now — at last — we were just flat out in Panamera Turbo…

We're off the autobahn now and riding twisty German B-roads as and our Turbo seems to cover ground, eat up the miles and simply destroy distance with an uncanny lack of fuss and bother. It's simply effortless to drive fast.

Come off the gas and stop as you bear right at the country intersection, floor it and it takes a moment to properly spool up those turbos and it lurches warp-like forward and continues to pile on the pace as long as you dare allow it to.

Porsche claims a 4.0-second dead 0-100 for the Turbo, saying it'll get to 160km/h in 9.0 seconds and on to that 300 top end.

The big Porsche dispels its considerable mass with consummate ease, its 373kW and considerable 700Nm making sure that the two-tonnes-plus this thing weighs with a driver and fuel on board doesn't really matter.

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